1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to new and useful improvements in fish skinning, scaling and dressing tools, and more particularly to such a tool which is the combination of a cutter, scaler and a gripping member for grasping the skin of the fish.
2. General Background
Cleaning and dressing of fish is always a difficult task. Sadly enough, until now, this has been even more difficult a task than was necessary due to the lack of a tool which combined the capacity for cutting, scaling, and skinning in one instrument.
In the art of fish skinning, two operations are required. First the skin must be loosened by cutting with a sharp bladed instrument; then, the skin must be removed by gripping the loosened end of the skin with a pincer or plier type tool or gripping member.
In the art of fish scaling the scales are removed by scraping off the scales by drawing a scaler over the body of the fish. Dressing also involves the use of a sharp bladed instrument for cutting.
Whether commercially or for sport, the fisherman is usually faced with the task of cleaning a catch made up of both fish having an outer covering of skin and fish having and outer covering of scales. Consequently, a person engaged in these operations will pick-up and lay down respective cutting, skinning, and scaling tools time after time. This is time consuming and inefficient.
Various attempts have been made to fill the need for such a device. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,720,001 issued to Hobson; U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,120 issued to Tifft; U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,165 issued to Bellis; U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,197 issued to Heuer; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,048 issued to Jackson.
Although these patents have attempted to fill this need, until now there has been no device which has been completely successful in combining the operation of cutting, scaling, and skinning in such a way that any of these operations can be performed in any sequence without changing the operator's grip on the device.
Accordingly, there appears to be a longstanding need for an improved combination which will overcome the aforementioned problems.